Why's everybody so high on Lowrie? He has a history of being injury prone and his average has slipped to .261. This looks like the ultimate case of selling high while you can.

I'm not sure this is his 'peak' performance. Considering he's 28 y/o and most consider 28-32 to be prime performance years, I could easily picture him putting up a .300/35HR year in the next few seasons. He could easily finish this season at .280/32HR.

I think his value could actually continue to grow, so the Astros really need to pick the right deal and not hurry to flip him.

I'm not sure this is his 'peak' performance. Considering he's 28 y/o and most consider 28-32 to be prime performance years, I could easily picture him putting up a .300/35HR year in the next few seasons. He could easily finish this season at .280/32HR.

You could "easily" see him hitting 35HRs a year? This is a guy that, in 375 minor league games, hit 29 HRs. This is the same ridiculousness that had everyone deciding JD Martinez was going to be the superstar #3 hitter for the Astros for the next decade and that Altuve & Martinez are the next Biggio & Bagwell. These things MAY happen, but projecting that way and making decisions based on that kind of stuff is a bad way to build a team.

If the team gets a great offer, they should jump on it. Not because Lowrie isn't a good player, but because if Lowrie DOES hit 35 HRs the next few seasons and is the best SS in the game, then you can bet the Yankees will offer him $200MM or so when its free agent time (and Derek Jeter is coming to the end of his contract). So the odds of the Astros actually having him when *they* are good is not very high in that scenario.

You could "easily" see him hitting 35HRs a year? This is a guy that, in 375 minor league games, hit 29 HRs. This is the same ridiculousness that had everyone deciding JD Martinez was going to be the superstar #3 hitter for the Astros for the next decade and that Altuve & Martinez are the next Biggio & Bagwell. These things MAY happen, but projecting that way and making decisions based on that kind of stuff is a bad way to build a team.

If the team gets a great offer, they should jump on it. Not because Lowrie isn't a good player, but because if Lowrie DOES hit 35 HRs the next few seasons and is the best SS in the game, then you can bet the Yankees will offer him $200MM or so when its free agent time (and Derek Jeter is coming to the end of his contract). So the odds of the Astros actually having him when *they* are good is not very high in that scenario.

He has a 800+ ops as a SS which in the non steroid mlb is pretty darn good. It is 2nd in the entire majors, but he does have a track record of getting injured so it might be best to maximize his trade value. I don't think his ops is a fluke based on the numbers he put out previously.

You could "easily" see him hitting 35HRs a year? This is a guy that, in 375 minor league games, hit 29 HRs. This is the same ridiculousness that had everyone deciding JD Martinez was going to be the superstar #3 hitter for the Astros for the next decade and that Altuve & Martinez are the next Biggio & Bagwell. These things MAY happen, but projecting that way and making decisions based on that kind of stuff is a bad way to build a team.

If the team gets a great offer, they should jump on it. Not because Lowrie isn't a good player, but because if Lowrie DOES hit 35 HRs the next few seasons and is the best SS in the game, then you can bet the Yankees will offer him $200MM or so when its free agent time (and Derek Jeter is coming to the end of his contract). So the odds of the Astros actually having him when *they* are good is not very high in that scenario.

You could "easily" see him hitting 35HRs a year? This is a guy that, in 375 minor league games, hit 29 HRs. This is the same ridiculousness that had everyone deciding JD Martinez was going to be the superstar #3 hitter for the Astros for the next decade and that Altuve & Martinez are the next Biggio & Bagwell. These things MAY happen, but projecting that way and making decisions based on that kind of stuff is a bad way to build a team.

If the team gets a great offer, they should jump on it. Not because Lowrie isn't a good player, but because if Lowrie DOES hit 35 HRs the next few seasons and is the best SS in the game, then you can bet the Yankees will offer him $200MM or so when its free agent time (and Derek Jeter is coming to the end of his contract). So the odds of the Astros actually having him when *they* are good is not very high in that scenario.

Fine, perhaps 'easily' was overstating it but it is not a giant leap of faith to predict him hitting 35HR at some point in his career. Its simply not. In 2 out of the last 3 seasons, he's averaged a home run approximately every 21 plate appearances. Projected out to 700 pa's in a full season and thats 33.3 hr. If he improves even 5% in HR rate, that's a 35HR season. So no, it's not a stretch of the imagination.

And if you've ever read any of my posts, you'd see I'm all for trading him. I completely agree that Lowrie won't be a part of the next contending Astros team. My point was that his talent is real and we have plenty of time to get the best offer, we don't need to take the first decent deal that comes along.

Zach Lee and Garrett Gould is a decent deal for Lowrie. We could get a much better one by waiting.

From what I read so far, it looks like LA doesn't want to give up prospects and would rather take on salary. So it looks like the offer is probably Lee for Gould straight up. The only road block is Lee accepting the trade.

From what I read so far, it looks like LA doesn't want to give up prospects and would rather take on salary. So it looks like the offer is probably Lee for Gould straight up. The only road block is Lee accepting the trade.

I may be under-rating C-los in this market, but I thought Gould would be a respectable return. I don't see how the could get any significant more than Gould back.

Crane needs to go old-school Drayton McClane on C-Los and say "look, you accept the trade and we'll get you a bulldozer for the ranch".

The Astros have taken trade ideas to Lee in the past, but he's always said no. HOU's leverage is that they could play others.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN)

I really hope they take this stance. "Look Carlos, we're about the future. If you don't take accept this trade then we plan on bringing up Wally and sitting you for the remainder of the year with the exception of pinch hitting. You have a chance to make a playoff run, plus, audition on a big stage if you would like to play next year. Thank you for your time."

I really hope they take this stance. "Look Carlos, we're about the future. If you don't take accept this trade then we plan on bringing up Wally and sitting you for the remainder of the year with the exception of pinch hitting. You have a chance to make a playoff run, plus, audition on a big stage if you would like to play next year. Thank you for your time."

Could we just tell him he'd be demoted to AAA if he remains in Houston, to clear up room for the young guys?

Lowrie is putting up numbers this year that we can only hope Correa will put up in The Bigs. Trading Lowrie should get Luhnow fired.

Lowrie is a player that the Astros should build around.

Come' on now. "Trading Lowrie should get Luhnow fired." Seriously. We need to pump the brakes on the legend of Jed Lowrie. Is he putting up good HR numbers for a SS? Yes. That's great and all but it doesn't warrant building around the guy. A question, would you build around J.J. Hardy?? Look at his '07 & '08 numbers.

Could we just tell him he'd be demoted to AAA if he remains in Houston, to clear up room for the young guys?

I don't know if they'd go that far out of "respect", but honestly if he doesn't approve a deal to a contender, what kind of respect does he have for his own career? If it was me, I'd try to go out with a bang!

lee is retiring, its as simple as that. he would probably love to sit on the bench and collect his paycheck...

Yeah there was talk of either retirement or coming back as a DH somewhere(no way here!) but he does seem like his passion is post-baseball with his ranches,etc. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd be ok with chilling on the bench and cashing in but I'd hope he would want one last run for the love of the game.

Astros first baseman Carlos Lee said Saturday he’s mulling whether to accept a trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Lee, upon arrival at Wrigley Field for a game against the Cubs, said he was brief by general manager Jeff Luhnow about the situation earlier in the day. Lee has a limited no-trade clause and said he would have to approve a trade to the Dodgers.

“I met with Jeff this morning and he told me what’s going on and let’s see what happens,” Lee said.

Lee did confirm the Dodgers have made an offer for the 36-year slugger who’s hitting .290 with five homers and 29 RBIs this year.

“L.A. has made an offer,” he said. “I just told Jeff I want to see my options. I just want to wait and see what my options are.”

Lee, who’s in the final year of a six-year, $100-million contract that has about $9 million left this season, said he wasn’t given a deadline from the Astros to make a decision. He’s got deep business ties in Texas and owns and operates a large ranch not far from Houston.

“We’ll see how it plays out,” he said.

When asked if he’d like to finish out the season in Houston or go to a contending club, Lee said that will weigh into his decision

“That’s one of the things I have to think about,” he said. “There ain’t much I can tell you right now.”

Wow, that would be huge to unload some part of Lee's salary. Lee's a really good guy, so I like him, but cutting at least some part of that salary would be huge for the Astros. The Dodgers definitely need some offense with the way they've been playing.

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